For Those We've Lost Along the Way
by YaninaFrauchez
Summary: Canon Divergence - Rather than being killed, Fleche is taken prisoner after the Battle of Gronder field to get more information about who she is and why she was there. Fleche still wants nothing more than Dimitri's death, while Dimitri is still coming to terms with his own acceptance of all those who have died. Can they help each other move on for those they've lost along the way.


It had been almost a month since Fleche infiltrated her way into Garreg Mach and the Kingdom Army. She had spent most of her time at the monastery lying low, but she had also managed to get enough information to know when was the right opportunity to get her revenge. After enough pleading she was granted permission to participate in the next mission, a massive battle at Gronder Field.

"It is finally time for our revenge dear brother." Fleche said to herself as she watched the chaotic three way battle at hand. She had previously made sure to kill the Kingdom's messenger bird before it arrived to Claude and the Leicester Alliance. Without the alliance to aid them, the Kingdom could not hope to defeat the Empire. Fleche looked up as she saw Dimitri approaching from the near distance.

"So, you think you can escape Edelgard?" Dimitri asked as Edelgard retreated from the battlefield being covered by her forces.

Dimitri moved to chase down Edelgard, however out from the distance Lord Rodrigue called to him. "Your Highness, I'm glad to see you're alive." Rodrigue told him. "We cannot win this battle, we must retreat to the Great Bridge of Myrddin." He said.

Dimitri furiously rose his heroes' relic Areadbhar. "We failed to capture that woman. I will keep pursuing her. The rest of you, keep fighting!" He yelled out.

"I'm so sorry, but we can't do that." Rodrigue lamented. "I understand how you feel, but the Imperial army is closing in on us."

"Enough! I'll kill all of them! No matter how many hundreds or thousands stand in my way they'll all die by my hand!" Dimitri roared out.

Fleche smirked at the opportunity presented and gripped her dagger. She took a deep breath and moved closer behind Dimitri. Rodrigue caught notice of Fleche approaching from the distance. "What are you still doing here?" He asked her. "It's too dangerous to keep fighting all troops must fall back now." He ordered.

Fleche laughed sadistically as she continued to approach Dimitri. By the time Rodrigue caught notice of the dagger Fleche held, it was too late and she had stabbed Dimitri in the back. "You are.." Dimitri painfully choked out.

"Have I caught you off guard Your Highness?" Fleche mockingly asked him as she continued to laugh sadistically. "Aww does it hurt? I bet it hurts reaaaal bad doesn't it? But it's nothing compared to what my brother felt! You will never be forgiven you know. I will never forgive you!" Fleche yelled out as tears of grief rolled down her face.

"You must be..." Dimitri started to say before Fleche pulled the dagger out of his back leaving him to shout in pain.

Fleche gripped the dagger as hard as she could and readied herself to stab Dimitri again, this time a killing blow. "That's enough you filthy monster! It's time to DIE!" She yelled out.

Just as Fleche was going to kill Dimitri, Rodrigue rushed in between the two of them getting stabbed by the dagger instead of Dimitri. Fleche stabbed him through the chest resulting in Rodrigue bleeding profusely. "Professor stop her, do it now." Rodrigue weakly said.

Byleth acted quickly using the Sword of the Creator to disarm Fleche. She dealt a second strike on Fleche herself causing the smaller girl to fall back in pain.

"Brother please help me." Fleche murmured before falling unconscious.

Byleth carefully approached the unconscious Fleche. Upon realizing Fleche was only unconscious, not dead she readied the Sword of the Creator once more to finish Fleche off. Before she could strike however, Dimitri rose up from the ground. "Do not kill her, there is still much about her that we do not know. Let us take her back to the monastery where we can properly interrogate her." He said.

Byleth nodded and put away the Sword of the Creator. "How are we going to transport her and Rodrigue back with us?" She asked Dimitri. "The Empire soldiers will be here any moment, and you can barely walk with those injuries." She pointed out.

"I can still fight." Dimitri said. "I'll fight our way out of here until we can get to the Great Bridge of Myrddin." Dimitri said.

Byleth shook her head in response. "If you try fighting with those injuries there's a good chance that Rodrigue will end up having died for nothing. Give me a moment to come up with an idea." She said. Byleth looked around at her allies on the battlefield before formulating an idea for getting everyone out of there safely. "Ingrid, Sylvain, Manuela I need you three over here now!" She yelled out as loud as she could.

The three of them heard Byleth's call and arrived as swiftly as they could. "What happened?" Sylvain asked seeing Dimitri badly wounded along with Rodrigue and Fleche on the ground each with their own blood and wounds.

"Are they...?" Ingrid began to ask.

"No time to explain. We'll debrief once we get to safety." Byleth said. "Ingrid you take the girl on your Pegasus. She's small enough that you should be able to carry her without being weighed down."

"Yes Professor." Ingrid nodded. She carefully picked Fleche up held her tightly to make sure she wouldn't fall off the Pegasus ride to safety.

"Sylvain, you take Dimitri. Head straight for the bridge and make sure to avoid combat at all costs. He's injured badly even if he won't admit it." She said.

Sylvain smiled and grabbed Dimitri hosting him onto the horse. "No worries Professor, as long as His Highness is with me he'll be safe." Sylvain said.

Finally Byleth turned to Manuela and the deceased Rodrigue. "Manuela your magic has increased in the last five years. Can you perform a warping spell to get you and Lord Rodrigue back to the bridge?" She asked Manuela.

Manuela tilted her head hesitantly. "I don't know if I can take us all the way to the bridge, but I'll try my best to warp us as close as possible." She said.

"That will have to be good enough, just leave the battle as fast as you can." Byleth responded.

"Professor, before I do this I have to know the truth. Lord Rodrigue, is he..." Manuela hesitated to ask.

Byleth sighed and nodded. "We'll debrief with the army later, but yes Lord Rodrigue is gone. He sacrificed himself to save Dimitri." She answered. Manuela lowered her head and put a hand on Rodrigue's corpse before warping away with him. Byleth turned back to the army at hand. "All Kingdom soldiers retreat. Emperor Edelgard is no longer on the battlefield so there is no purpose in continuing the battle. We fall back and regroup at the Great Bridge of Myrddin." She announced.

Byleth lead the retreat effectively so it wasn't much longer until everyone had managed to regroup as planned.

"So much for ending the war there. As soon as we got close to Edelgard she retreated and sent in a massive army to cover her." Sylvain complained.

"If only Claude and the Alliance were on our side. Working with them instead of fighting them we might have had a better chance." Ashe said.

"Well at least we all made it out of the battle alive. For a moment there it looked like the Empire was going to finish us off." Mercedes pointed out.

Byleth and Dimitri looked away at Mercedes' comment. "What's the matter?" Annette asked picking up on the sullen vibe that Byleth and Dimitri were giving off. They both stayed silent before finally answering.

"Lord Rodrigue died in the battle." Byleth said.

Various gasps were heard throughout the army. There was a tense silence surrounding them as nobody knew what to say. The silence was inevitably broken by Felix. "How did he die?" Felix asked. "How did my old man die?" He asked again immediately after.

"He was killed by the anonymous girl who entered our army last month." Byleth said.

"You mean the girl who you asked me to bring back with us?" Ingrid asked still holding onto Fleche.

Byleth nodded looking over at her. "She attempted to kill Dimitri, but before she could Lord Rodrigue sacrificed himself to save his life. Dimitri said we should bring her back with us as a prisoner so we can find out who she is and why she wanted to kill him." She answered.

Felix laughed sarcastically and shook his head. "Why is that even a question. There's countless people who want him dead. He's a wild boar who's been on a five year long killing spree." Felix said.

"Felix!" Ingrid yelled at him.

"No, he's right." Dimitri said. "I have my own suspicions about who she may be, and why she wanted me dead. I think ... I think I killed someone close to her before. If not for my actions, then maybe Rodrigue wouldn't ..." Dimitri said.

"Save it!" Felix yelled at Dimitri. "I don't want to hear any of your empty words about his death. Let's just get back to the monastery so we can rest and then after bury the old man. He said.

Felix headed off to the monastery by himself. Annette quickly ran over to catch up with him. "Felix, wait up." She yelled over to him, but Felix continued walking on his own.

The trek back to the monastery was a long and difficult one for the Kingdom Army. The forced retreat along with the attempted assassination on Dimitri, and death of Lord Rodrigue had drained the army of all morale they had left. When they finally returned to the monastery the first matter of business was giving Lord Rodrigue a proper burial. At the funeral Gilbert gave an eloquent speech about the many years that he had worked together with Rodrigue. Felix stood to the side during the whole event refusing to say a word. When it was all said and done everyone returned their rooms for the night. Almost everyone that is. Dimitri headed out towards the monastery entrance with Byleth running after him. As for Annette, she went over to Felix's room instead.

Annette knocked on Felix's door softly hoping not to disturb him if he was already asleep. When there was no answer, she knocked again, this time a bit harder. "What do you want?" Felix asked.

"It's me Annette." Annette said. "I just wanted to see how you were doing, maybe talk a little if that's okay." She told him.

"Go away." Felix replied.

Annette nervously played with her hands as she stayed firmly outside his door. "Please Felix, I promise I won't be long, but I really just want to make sure you're doing fine before I go to sleep." She said.

"I said go away." Felix repeated. "I'm fine." He added.

Annette sighed in defeat and turned around. "Okay Felix, but if you want to talk, or maybe if you wanted me to sing for you some more you know where my room is." Annette offered.

Annette didn't make it far down the hallway when she heard Felix's door open. She turned around to see Felix standing in the doorway averting his gaze from her. "Actually Annette, I wouldn't mind if you stayed just for a bit." He relented.

Annette blushed red, but smiled as she walked into Felix's room. Once inside he closed the door giving them the privacy they needed. They sat next to each other on his bed. "How are you doing after everything?" Annette asked.

"I already told you I'm fine. When Glen died my old man went on and on about how honorable his death was, but there's no point in glorifying someone's death. He's six feet in the ground and that's all there is to it nothing more." Felix answered.

"But if it wasn't for Lord Rodrigue, then Dimitri wouldn't be with us. I wish there was a way out of this where nobody had to die, but I think your dad accepted his death knowing it was to protect Dimitri." Annette said.

Felix stood up and threw his hands in the air angrily. "Of course he accepted it. If anything the old man was probably glad to die the way he did. The way he glorified Glenn's death he'd probably be glorifying his own death right now if he could. Sure he's dead, but at least the boar is alive to go on another suicide mission. I bet the boar's already on his way to Enbar as we speak. Why should anyone care about his death as long as the precious boar prince gets to live." Felix shouted.

"Felix it's okay to miss him." Annette softly told him.

Felix embraced Annette in a tight hug. Annette was startled at first by the sudden display of affection, but she hugged him back once she realized what was happening. Felix silently cried as he hugged Annette, and she rubbed her hand across his back in comfort. The two stayed together for an extended period of time before finally Felix let go of her. He dried his face of lingering tears leaving little sign that he had even cried in the first place.

"I'm sorry about that." Felix told Annette.

"Don't be." Annette replied. "I told you that I'd be here for you didn't I?" Annette asked him smiling.

Felix blushed at her smile, but smiled back at her as well. He gently grabbed her hands and held them with his own. "Annette do you remember what I told you not to long ago in the greenhouse? About your songs?" He asked her.

"You mean when you said you were my captive?" Annette asked him.

Felix blushed again and cleared his throat to regain his composure. "Yes, but not that part. Do you remember the other part I told you?" He asked.

Annette thought for a moment tapping her cheek, but shook her head. "Sorry Felix, but I can't say that I remember." She said.

"I told you that I have your songs stuck in my head all the time. I can't stop thinking about you or your songs. Back then I wasn't sure why, but now I think I get it. You make me feel calm Annette. Your songs bring me this feeling that I haven't felt in so long. Even when everything is at it's worst if I think of you it doesn't feel so bad anymore." Felix told her.

Annette blushed fiercely and pulled her hands away from Felix to cover her face with them. "Felix are you teasing me again?" She asked him.

"I'm not." Felix defended. "I mean every word I say Annette. In fact, I was hoping you could sing me a song before you left tonight." Felix said. "If you don't mind that is." He added.

Annette nervously played around with her hair, but nodded. "Of course Felix, but before that if we're being honest then I need to tell you how I feel. I know it's not the best time with the war and the death of your dad, but I have to get this out there. When I'm with you I feel this funny feeling in my stomach. I thought it was because you always tease me, but even when you aren't teasing it's still there. I really like you Felix, and I like how you're always so nice to me even when you're teasing. I like the way you enjoy my songs even when they're silly. The way you help me train even though you prefer to train alone. I think I might... I might..." Annette said covering her face once more in embarrassment.

"Felix gently pulled her hands away from her face and looked at her sincerely. "I feel the same way Annette. "I love you too." He replied. Felix leaned forward to kiss Annette. She squeaked slightly in surprise, but returned the kiss fully. Felix put a hand on Annette's cheek while Annette wrapped herself around Felix in a hug. The two stayed together fully in loving embrace before separating. "So how about that song?" Felix asked once they separated.

Elsewhere deep in the monastery, Fleche was finally waking up. She looked around to see herself chained up in a dark room. "I'm alive?" Fleche asked out loud in surprise.

"You are thanks to Dimitri. If not for him then I'd have struck you down no hesitation." Byleth said stepping out of the shadows.

"Now then why don't we get to know who you really are." Dimitri said as he walked next to Byleth.

* * *

**AN:** Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this story. It's a fun idea that was bounced back and forth between my lil sis and myself. I'm going to enjoy writing this as Fleche is a character I love who doesn't get enough spotlight and was so underutilized in the game itself. The beginning of this did take some dialogue directly from the game, but that was just the easiest way to start things off. This is canon divergent so don't expect a lot of dialogue directly from game. There are also going to be some game events that take place off screen here. For example in this chapter Byleth had her talk with Dimitri from canon, we just didn't see it. Instead we saw Felix and Annette hooking up. Anyway, I don't have much to say, but I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and like the premise for this story.


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